Supreme Court suspends Utah same sex marriages

The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Utah an emergency stay blocking more same-sex marriages in the Beehive State “pending a final decision” on a federal judge’s ruling that the state’s anti-gay marriage law was discriminatory and unconstitutional.

The Dec. 20th decision by U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby temporarily made Utah the 18th state, along with the District of Columbia, to have marriage equality.

The state government has appealed Shelby’s ruling to the Denver-based U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. Shelby and the 10th Circuit had refused to grant the state an emergency stay. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, who oversees the circuit, referred the state’s request to the full Supreme Court.

The state argued, among other reasons, that if a higher court overrules Shelby, it would present the legal and social task to “‘unwind’ thousands of same-sex marriages” that took place while the decision was in effect.

The Supreme Court, in a ruling last June, let stand but on a technicality the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker to overturn California’s anti-gay Prop. 8, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Walker ruled that the measure had the intent to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

In a companion ruling, however, the Supremes overturned a key provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits even to same sex couples legally married in their states. The majority opinion, by Justice Anthony Kennedy, held that regulation and terms for marriage generally fall to the responsibility of the states.

Same-sex marriage became legal in eight states last year, six by legislative action and two (New Jersey and California) as a result of court decisions.